


Do You Believe in Ghosts

by VaellintheBard



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, Minor Spoilers, One Shot, Romance, Spoilers for some Support Conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VaellintheBard/pseuds/VaellintheBard
Summary: Ashe and Annette are tasked to find a book in a haunted tower, so they recruit Felix to help them.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic & Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert, Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert & Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 6
Kudos: 64





	Do You Believe in Ghosts

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

The question was asked out of nowhere. Felix glanced up from the book he was reading--a detailed explanation on fighting styles using broken weapons--to face Annette and Ashe. Both appeared frightened and serious, gazing at him with their bright eyes.

“What’s that about ghosts?” Felix didn’t close his book. He didn’t expect the conversation to take long, expected to go back to reading as soon as he answered their question.

“We were just thinking that you’re a practical person, you know?” Ashe said, smiling wanely.

“Exactly! Even if you believe in ghosts, you’re not the kind of person to be afraid of them!” Annette added.

“Of course not. That’s ridiculous. The dead don’t come back as ghosts, even if we want them to,” Felix retorted, dismissing the idea altogether.

“Perfect!” the two cheered, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him away from the table. “You can help us!”

Felix stumbled to his feet, surprised by the strength of the two of them. They were both backline fighters and, while he didn’t think that meant they were slouches in the field, they were much stronger than expected. Especially Annette, who preferred wielding spells with only the occasional axe swing. 

After a few startled steps, the swordsman tugged his arm free, sighing and following the group. Helping them would likely be quicker than trying to convince them to leave him alone. Besides, he was just reading, not practicing in the training grounds.

“So the professor wanted us to find a book, you see,” Annette explained as the three walked towards the edge of the monastery. A tower loomed on the hill, a bit broken and boarded up, clearly an old watch tower from when Garreg Mach’s territory was further in. It could still serve its purpose, but more modern and advantageous towers had left it abandoned.

“And we asked around, because it wasn’t in the library,” Ashe continued. “Eventually Professor Hanneman regaled us a story of how a couple of students once started taking books and hiding them in the tower to get out of assignments or something.”

“But you see, the problem is that one of the kids never graduated. Rumor is they went missing, but it’s possible that they um…” Annete glanced about nervously before gesturing to the tower in front of them.

“That the student died here and is haunting it? Is that what Professor Hanneman suggested?” Felix asked skeptically. Hanneman was the kind of person to put ideas into people’s heads, but usually with good intentions. Ghosts in a tower weren’t in line with that.

“N-no,” Ashe muttered. “Mercedes…”

“Mercie was there at the time, helping Professor Hanneman, and she suggested, um…”

That made a lot more sense. Mercedes was prone to pranks of this variety, something Felix never felt matched her usual airy personality. He could never tell what she was thinking and preferred to avoid her, especially with her view on him as her little brother. She, unfortunately, had a different opinion.

“So Mercedes hinted that there might be a ghost here and you decided to bring me along over anyone else?”

Annette nodded. “Well, who else would not be scared by such silly things--”

“Ah, so you realize it’s silly.”

The young woman blushed, highlighting her freckles and making Felix smile. Teasing her always made her appear cuter somehow, even though it was never his intention to tease.

“And also be able to intimidate the ghosts!” Ashe finished for Annette.

“So, I’m like a ward against spirits for you guys?” Felix groaned and the two nodded enthusiastically. “Fine, let’s get this over with. What book are we looking for?”

“History of the Saints: Relationships of the original Crest Users. It supposedly tells the tale of how Saint Seiros and the others gathered and their lives before the war.” Annette tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I think the Professor is going to talk about crests in the upcoming weeks. I’ve seen her hanging out with Professor Hanneman often lately.”

Easily explainable as Hanneman asking about the Crest of Flames, but Byleth would probably use the opportunity to turn it into a lesson for her students.

Felix stepped up to the door, already unlocked. It easily creaked opened under his hand, only a little dust disturbed as the opening revealed a dark entryway. So the duo had at least tried to enter before calling upon Felix. Felix wasn’t sure whether to condemn them for caving into their fears or praise them for facing them, even briefly. Well, knowing Annette, his praise would probably be taken sarcastically.

Inside was even dustier and darker than it initially appeared. As they stepped inside, Felix at the front, the door swung closed behind the group. Ashe and Annete jumped, exclaiming something about a ghost. “No, we’re just on a slant. The weight of the door is just swinging it closed. Feel free to prop the door open with something.”

“Oh, smart idea! Then the ghosts can’t lock us in here!” Annette replied. “You’re a genius, Felix!” The swordsman flushed, glad for the darkness even as he wanted to correct Annette. It was for light and easy escape, should the aged building decide now to collapse. What would a simple stone do to stop a ghost anyway?

“A torch would be nice if it wasn’t so dangerous,” Ashe muttered as he pulled the door open and set a large rock in front.

“Too much dust and paper. We’d be caught in an inferno in seconds,” Felix agreed.

“Oh! But we could think of how to use it as a trap, couldn’t we?” Annette added.

“How so?”

“Well, if we ever need to escape, we could run in here and head upstairs before throwing down a torch to set the downstairs on fire, then easily escape out a window and onto a cliff!”

Felix raised an eyebrow at the young mage. Huh, she couldn’t brave ghosts but easily considered scaling down a cliff with a blazing fire behind her.

“And the ghost might also scare them off!” Annette clapped her hands together, deciding her plan was brilliant. The black haired man, however, covered his mouth to stop a laugh. He was once again baffled at her approach to life. Not that it was bad. He enjoyed catching her song in the air, trying to follow it without disturbing it, for example.

“Can we stop talking about the ghost and setting this place on fire?” Ashe requested. “We need light to see the books, how do we plan to read the titles?”

“Well there can’t be that many. I guess we’ll just try to look around and bring what books we find to the entrance to read the title,” Annette suggested.

“Or I’ll go and break off some boards to let light in,” Felix offered, marching forward. “Wait there a moment.”

Unfortunately, as he felt his way to a window and tugged on the boards, they proved to be on tight. He grunted, bracing one foot on the wall as he pulled with both hands. The wood split, but the little light that leaked in was not helpful. This would take a lot longer then he thought.

“Want me to get a tool to help?” Ashe asked from the door, light still bathing on the two frightened classmates.

“Sure, I’ll do what I can here, but that will probably make it much faster.”

“I’ll be back quickly then,” Ashe said, nodding before darting out the door, happy to be out of the “haunted” tower and to be of assistance. 

Felix sighed, returning to his board to pull on it again. The wood groaned under his strength, stubbornly holding onto the wall. Eventually, he snapped off another piece and more light filtered in. Not much more, but it was progress.

“Hm, I think I can read a few titles here. Let me browse these shelves,” Annette muttered, stepping behind him. He was acutely aware of her location, feeling her warmth as he shifted to a less intrusive destruction method. Maybe he should wait for Ashe to get back and settle on what they could see now.

“Ah! I see a book right there that says History! I can’t see the rest though so maybe…” Annette pulled herself onto the shelf, trying to reach the top.

Noticing her action a second too late, Felix spun quickly as the shelf tilted, too deteriorated to be structurally sound, especially with a whole human on it. “Annette!” he shouted as he moved into her space, covering her as the shelf toppled forward onto them. The three fell--shelf, man, and woman--sending up a cloud of dust around them.

Coughing due to the grime, Felix felt his strength escape him, barely covering his mouth with one arm as he was pinned beneath Annette and a pile of books. Ironically, the fall had knocked a couple of wooden boards free, letting light stream in and turning their gloomy, haunted tower into a regular, dusty hovel, particles drifting in the sun beams.

He tried not to think of his arm, posed over Annette’s back and holding up the fallen case more than anything. It hurt if he focused on it too much, worse yet he was sure it was becoming numb. He didn’t pay much attention to Manuela’s classes on injury care, but Felix knew the symptoms of a broken arm at least.

And the little mage was out entirely, unable to remove herself so he could subsequently escape. There was no way he was going to let the bookshelf fall entirely on the poor girl.

“So this is how I die,” Felix stated sarcastically, letting out one more weak cough behind his free arm. At least it wasn’t a knight’s death, just some unfortunate accident. Not that he thought he’d actually die from this, but he’d take his silver linings wherever.

All he had to do, at the moment, was wait. That was boring, however, and he’d much rather spend it training. After a deep breath, shielded by his arm, he began to hum boredly. The tune was one that stayed with him, always lurking in the back of his mind, ever since he stumbled upon Annette singing in the garden.

Really, it was amusing. She was no diva like Dorothea or Manuela and the words were barely strung together nonsense, but the song stayed with him. Felix couldn’t remember the words exactly, sticking to just the tune. He really wanted her to sing that song again, needed to know the words so that it’d finally get out of his head.

“Ugh, do you have to keep reminding me of that stupid moment?” Annette groaned as she groggily came to. “Felix, you’re such a jerk.”

Felix laughed. He couldn’t help it, his chest rumbling as Annette protested once more over something she thought embarrassing when he found it… captivating. Maybe one day he’d find the right words to explain his thoughts to her. For now, however, he had to get the two of them free. “Well, since you’re awake, perhaps you could slip free and help me up?”

Annette blinked at him, a bit baffled until she noticed the weight on her and how close she was to him, in that order. “Oh my goddess!” Annete yelped, trying to jolt away unsuccessfully. Felix grunted in pain, spots of white dancing in his vision as she bumped the shelf up only to have it collide back into his arm.

“Annette… Annette, please, calm down,” Felix said. “I’ll hold the shelf up a bit and you can just roll away. Then you can help hold it up while I escape.” He coughed again as his free arm grabbed the shelf, prepared to lift it off her body. At Annette’s quiet nod, he pushed the furniture up just an inch. Annette wiggled slightly up, briefly creating more contact before crawling out and creating some distance. Felix’s grip on the wood above him tightened, and he hoped that the dust and darkness was still enough to hide the heat he felt rising to his cheeks. Not that it meant anything. What young man wouldn’t feel something when a cute girl pushed herself against him? Felix was, after all, only human. Annette was just…

“Fe...lix?” Annete grunted, snapping Felix back to reality as he realized she’d started to lift the shelf up. The red of his cheeks deepened as he hurriedly pushed himself out from underneath the shelf, climbing to his feet just as Annette let the object crash to the ground. More dust billowed into the air, creating a new round of coughing.

Once it settled and the two could breathe again, Annette giggled, elbowing Felix. “Forget ghosts, I’m pretty sure books are the real enemy here!”

“If the professor heard you say that, I’m positive she’d assign us both to library duty for a month straight.”

“Anything’s better than pulling weeds,” the young girl said. “Besides, if I have you alongside me, then at least I’d be safe!” It was hard to tell with the little light and a lot of dust, but Annette seemed almost as red faced as him.

“Yes, well…” Felix didn’t know what to say to that. He agreed, but the words were stuck in his throat.

“Oh no! Felix! What happened to your arm?”

Felix glanced down, the limb stiffly pressed against him but slightly disfigured. His sleeve was stained red, torn open to expose a large bruise as well. The pain struck him all at once, the white spots almost overwhelming his vision. “Nothing… Professor Manuela can’t fix, I’m sure,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

“That looks bad Felix. I’m so sorry.” Annette reached out for his arm but then hesitated, catching his brown eyes briefly. “If you’re okay with it, I’ve been learning healing magic from Professor Manuela and Mercedes. I’m not nearly as good as either of them, but I think I could at least make it hurt less. If you’re okay with it, I mean.”

She was flustered, repeating herself somewhat. Felix stared down at her for a few moments. He wanted to refuse, but his brain wouldn’t supply him with a why. Worse yet, he also wanted to accept for a reason beyond alleviating some of the pain. With no good excuse to say no, he simply nodded in acknowledgement. Annette beamed at him, her smile as bright as the sunlight streaming into the room.

Her hand gently touched his injured arm. Annette closed her eyes, a soft prayer dancing across her lips as she transformed the energy of the Goddess into power. Warmth filled the swordsman, heat soothingly wrapping around his bones and muscles and then sneaking into the rest of his body. 

“I think the professor is just going to have to wait for that book until there’s a safer means to search for it. Come on, let’s go to the infirmary.” Annette grabbed his good arm, tugging much more gently than she had at the start of this misadventure. Felix followed but doubted that any healing done there would be as helpful as the small bit he received from Annette.

*Five or so years later*

Felix wrapped an arm around Annette, content to stay in bed just a little longer. He snorted at the thought. Younger Felix would’ve scolded him. The sun was already rising, he should be up and training! However, that was for a man who had nothing else in his life but the sword. Now, he had Annette.

It scared him a bit. After losing his brother, his father, even his school for a period of time, attaching himself to someone was beyond frightening. He tried to push it all away, but thoughts of her clung to him like briars, singing their cheerful nonsense like a siren’s call to his curiosity.

Humming a few notes, he stayed beside his little mage, eyes on her sleeping form. His favorite song, the library one. He knew the words, but preferred her voice singing them.

Oh, how I just love to clean. Clean the library room! Just takes a flash of light and then it all goes boom! A flash and then a big boom!

Wait a moment…

“Annette,” Felix muttered, gently nudging the red head. “Annette.”

“Hm? Felix? What’s up?” Annette blinked gray eyes open drowsily..

“The library song. Was that… about the tower? The one where a bookshelf fell on us?”

Annette’s immediate blush was enough to answer. She hurriedly pulled the blanket over her head, mumbling “when did you figure it out?”

“Just now.” Felix laughed, feeling Annette curl closer to him as if it’d hide herself from the conversation. “I should have realized it, even if you turned the tower into a library. The light was from the windows and the boom…”

“It was important to me,” Annette admitted. “I know it may be silly, but I never forgot how you protected me, even though you were annoyed.”

“And you healed me in return,” Felix said softly, kissing the blankets on top of her head. “It was important to me too. I don’t think I knew it quite yet, but I was already in love with you.” Annette shoved him indignantly, making the swordsman laugh again. “I’m serious.” He pulled the blankets down, uncovering her and catching her gaze with a smile. “For you, I’d stare down a thousand ghosts and bookshelves.”

Annette laughed, shoving him again before replying “You don’t believe in ghosts.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you're curious about what Ashe found when he returned, it was nothing, and for a good hour he probably thought the ghost got them. Poor Ashe.


End file.
